Grades of Silent Will

March 30, 2006

The silent man achieves more than the inveterate talker. Silence conserves energy and therefore accomplishes. A will of ours is not entirely our own. It is in the atmosphere. It is a thought afloat in the air entering into our minds calling for expression. We speak it out. It carries the power of speaking. When we refuse to speak it out, that thought is energised by the extra energy that would find expression in speech. It refuses to accept our own refusal and presses for expression. It gets expressed through another conducive to that thought. In a bargain, the rival expressing your idea is a total victory. Hence its power is limitless as well as uncontested. Still, this is the least one can get out of this method. The other grades are,

Not speaking it out;

Not thinking it as an idea;

Giving it up in disbelief or frustration.

Refusing to speak or think because of a clarity of knowledge that Silence is powerful.

It leaves us when we withdraw our consciousness from it.

At the last point, the will that was ours through the medium of Silence turns into Divine Will. He who understands this power must be willing to practise it. The best way to practise it is to practise silent will everywhere until it becomes second nature to us. It is difficult but it is the best by being comprehensive. The next best is to concentrate Silent will ONLY in our project on hand. The moment it becomes possible, our volubility in other areas increases immensely. One can be aware of it and deny that scope for the expenditure of energy. Should you succeed in it, the inner weight of consciousness increases. If the speech is curtailed, thought dwells on it more. This too needs to be curtailed. In cases where the inner seriousness is not commensurate, this extra effort leads to tension which means one has to widen inwardly his acceptance of this principle. For those who succeed at this level, the next level of NOT thinking of it is in order. It is far more arduous and is meant for those who are naturally drawn to seriousness and serenity.

To them, such an effort widens the personality giving the feeling of a new birth. For those who are raw in their inner life, but as a discipline master the first stage, there will be a burst of thinking resembling inner turmoil. It may, in its nascent violence, deprive him of his initial success of not speaking it out. The stage of NOT thinking, if successful, will give an almost instantaneous result. Ordinarily man gets frustrated and gives up an idea. In the wider scheme of things, such giving up becomes a Silent will, perhaps a negative silent will. In the experiences of Many, the results at once seek them. It gave place to a proverb, “The desireless achieve.” The right thing is a positive practice of this phenomenon. It is done by comprehending the value, power, significance and the philosophic sense of why Silent Will is powerful. To practise what one thus knows is desirable. Such persons achieve at a higher level. One who failed to get selected as a bank clerk three times was later recruited as a bank agent.

Beyond this lies the crown. It is to withdraw our consciousness from such a desire. That is clearly a practice meant for an accomplished yogi. He has no worldly aim. Should such a power be resorted to in life, he will accomplish at the highest possible level. One who fails to get a bank’s clerk post will become a Minister of Banking presiding over the entire department. People who accomplish in life accomplish by virtue of their own capacity and strength. Here, the power of Silence is used by those who have not developed such capacity of strength in life. This power is used instead, as it is inclusive of those aspects of social strength and psychological capacity.

Silent Will can be used forward in the future, backwards in the past, upwards for vertical growth, downwards to create strength in the depth, sideways on issues related functionally or socially. God is sometimes called Silence. Sri Aurobindo speaks of Silence behind Silence and HE says Silence sustains activity. A little of essential yogic development reveals springs of weighty Power welling up from inside. In the yogic experience of creative reality, it is Silence that forms as the bedrock to support all our movements, sound and noise. India is a land of Rishis. Her soil is soaked in spirituality. Spirit is Silence. He who fosters Silent will subconsciously tries to be a spiritual Indian gradually moving to the foundation of Silence. Westerners, seekers and others have often sensed, on entering Indian soil, even the Indian air space, this deep Silence. One becomes a true Indian if he founds himself on this basis. Sri Aurobindo on joining the Darjeeling English School found a darkness entering him at the age of 7. At the age of 21 when he returned to India, on setting foot on the Indian soil at Apollo Bunder He sensed a massive SILENCE entering Him which remained with Him to the end. Today India is poor, Indians freely resort to lying, ask for help with no sense of self-respect, none of which one can witness in the West. To preserve the ancient wealth of Spirit till its time comes, Nature has resorted to this inverse device even as the man who buries his treasure in the forest plants a thorny bush on it to distract people from the truth. All that India is at that level of depth is Light, Peace, Silence, Truth, Love and Beauty. The Mother says that today She sees all of this in the bodies of the Indians. Silent Will will make these aspects surface soon.

Some questions have been raised:

How can I do this while in a committee meeting?

What is the role of Silent will between husband and wife?

Where does this come in teaching a child?

These are pertinent practical questions on which some pages of explanation can be written. The sum is,

Silent Will will raise our role in the meeting to a far higher level which is more true at home.

Teaching will become learning because of Silent Will.

At a meeting, when you hesitate to raise a topic, Silent Will will raise it through another person, usually the opponent and settle it to our satisfaction. In fifty years, one gets to this position of authority. Silent Will is equal to fifty years of experience.

If you grade the harmony between the spouses from 1 to 10 and you are at 3, Silent Will will raise you to 4 so that issues will be resolved without communication. The teacher teaches this year and the child learns it fully after a few years. Silent Will will open the flood gates of freedom to the child and he will learn by his own curiosity the lessons of future years. You teach, the child remembers what you teach. When the child thinks of a question, he understands the answer. Silent Will raises learning from remembering facts to understanding them, a process which needs several years. Practise Silent Will, and you will see hundreds of questions raise themselves and resolve themselves. Answer the unresolved questions in one year, you would have matured a dozen years.